THERE’RE THINGS WE MAY NOT HAVE COMMUNICATED WELL, BUT WE CANT COMPARE TO PF – MWEETWA
By Julia Malunga,
UPND Spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa says no reasonable person can wish for the PF to return to power.
And Mweetwa has admitted that there could be things that the UPND may not have communicated well with the public but that does not get them anywhere near competition with the PF.
Commenting on remarks made by the former Defence Minister Davies Chama that Zambians were crying and wishing that they did not vote out PF, Mweetwa said the opposition leaders were in denial.
“How can Zambians cry after they decided to remove PF so resoundingly? It is just that the leaders of PF are in a state of denial. They never imagined [that] this would happen, they are still in a hungover of political impunity. But it happens in Zambia that once you are at variance with the wishes of the people, they get the opportunity to remove you through the ballot.
No reasonable person would wish PF can return to power except those that were directly connected and as beneficiaries of the activities of the PF. From the time the elections were over, have you seen any video footage of UPND cadres threatening violence? Insulting opposition leaders as it was under PF? This is the new beginning. Let us not return to violence and pangas, attacking media houses,” Mweetwa said.
“We managed, courtesy of the people of Zambia to remove PF. We were just instruments of change; the catalyst of change were the people. PF should not take Zambians for granted to begin to talk about Zambians regretting.
How can Zambians regret removing a tyrannical regime, a dictatorship, a government associated with corruption, no ways! Where you had ministers going round slapping people over the pandemic, is that what Chama is saying that Zambians are crying for? Let him enjoy their new found freedom in Zambia. Even those who are supposed to be in jail must enjoy their freedoms until they appear before the courts of law.”
Mweetwa said people should never again think of electing a political party with the “genre” of PF.
He admitted that there could be things that the UPND may not have communicated well with the public but that does not get them anywhere near competition with the PF.
“There will be peaceful campaigns in Kabwata and the best candidate will win. The era of political impunity where cadres wield authority over institutions of governance such as police is over. It has gone in the archives together with the PF. It is them when they were in leadership where cadres acted with impunity, they would be above the law, they would poke fingers in the face of the police officers.
They would enter offices of permanent secretaries, ministries, and begin to hound out civil servants accusing them of being in opposition. That is the history that all Zambians are running away from and that is why when we go to Kabwata, the choices are very clear,” Mweetwa said.
“Do you want to give PF authenticity that the kind of governance they had instilled in this country of cartels of political hooligans and thugs were in charge of the country that we must okay that by voting for them? No! I think that there will be no debate.
Here could be things that in the last four months, we may not have communicated well with the public or we may not get the favour of the public but that does not get us anywhere near competition with the PF. PF should go down in the doldrums of history and we should never again think of electing a political party with the genre of PF, divisive language, hate speech, tribal politics and nepotism.”
And Mweetwa disagreed with former Lupososhi member of parliament Bwalya Chungu that his party was averse to criticism.
“He is entitled to hold his own opinion as a politician. And we as UPND, we want to encourage members of the opposition to come out in the open and speak their mind because that is going to help us understand where the country is, where we are coming from and where we must go. We will not rush into criticizing the opposition, no.
The opposition is there to help the Executive to understand things. Respectfully, we disagree with him that we are very averse to criticism and targeting members of the PF. We have made it very clear that we will not get involved in issues that have to do with the law devoid of political interference.
I believe honourable Chungu is one of the cleanest ministers under the PF and it would be shocking for many to find that a person like him is being pursued by anyone. For now, his job is to speak for his friends because he has a higher moral ground,” said Mweetwa.
Credit: News Diggers